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Baffin Bay Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The trophy trout mother church: hypersaline water, ancient serpulid rocks and the biggest speckled trout in Texas swimming among them.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 8:37 PM
Air / High
81 / 84 F
Wind
E 7 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8775870, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Baffin Bay lines up a genuinely fishable day across the board. Today brings a mixed sky, wind E around 7 mph, steady pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 84. Tides: high 1:19 AM and 2:04 PM, low 7:46 AM and 8:37 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 78 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:08 AM-12:08 PM and 10:34 PM-12:34 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled troutExcellent

Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

Tomorrow: Similar at 82 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Texas requires a fishing licence from age 17, from $30.00 for residents, and salt water needs its own licence here. What a Texas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing redfish (red drum) here? Check the size and bag limits with TPWD before you keep anything. The season dates for Texas, read off the agency, are on the Texas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8775870 (Bob Hall Pier (nearest open-coast)). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH1:19 AM1.7 ft
LOW7:46 AM1.1 ft
HIGH2:04 PM1.8 ft
LOW8:37 PM1.3 ft
Sat
HIGH1:20 AM1.7 ft
LOW7:59 AM0.9 ft
HIGH3:19 PM2.0 ft
LOW9:47 PM1.5 ft

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp81 F
High / Low84 / 67 F
WindE 7-10 mph
Pressure1018.9 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain28% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:34 / 18:53
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~78 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Baffin Bay this week

The best day on Baffin Bay this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:08 AM-12:08 PM and 10:34 PM-12:34 AM
Minor period
4:29 AM-5:29 AM
Sun
07:34 to 18:53
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Partly cloudy, 14 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Baffin Bay: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled trout illustration

Speckled trout

Shallow bays spring and summer; deeper water in winter

Speckled trout is the anglers' name for the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), a spotted member of the drum family that lives in shallow bays and estuaries from the Chesapeake to Texas. Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

When to come: the Baffin Bay calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Redfish (red drum)
Speckled trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 78 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~78 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Baffin Bay today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 83 F, wind to 14 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 86 F, wind to 17 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 85 F, wind to 13 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Texas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Texas saltwater license + endorsement. Trout: Lower Laguna trophy rules: check current TPWD limits. Serpulid rocks: idle zones by ethic.

Access

Riviera Beach ramps, Kaufer-Hubert park; long runs from Corpus' JFK causeway southward.

About this water

The hypersaline trophy bay, Kleberg/Kenedy counties, TX. Home of the biggest specks in Texas.

Fishing Baffin Bay: the full guide

Sacred water

Baffin Bay opens off the Upper Laguna Madre like a legend: hypersaline, riverless, and floored with serpulid worm-rock reefs found almost nowhere else on earth. Those rocks and that salt grow the state's biggest speckled trout: double-digit dreams are legitimate here: and a culture of trophy hunters who measure seasons by single bites.

The big-trout program

Winter through early spring is the pilgrimage: slow-sinking plugs (Corkys and their descendants) worked over the rocks and mud-and-grass transitions on warming afternoons: long quiet wades, dawn starts, and the discipline to fish for one bite. The Badlands, Penascal's points and the Tide Gauge bar carry names spoken like scripture.

Rocks, drum and the rest

The serpulid reefs (idle wide: they break lower units and they are irreplaceable habitat) hold black drum schools (the bay's number-two fishery: sight-cast pods on the flats), redfish on the shorelines, and summer trout that spread across the Laguna's grass. The bay's remoteness: no town, long runs from Riviera or the JFK: keeps pressure humane.

Baffin ethics

The trophy culture polices itself: big trout are release fish here (the genetics are the fishery), photos happen in the water, and the freeze events that periodically wound the bay make every giant more precious. Fish it with reverence: Baffin is the coast's cathedral and its congregation knows.

Common questions

Why does Baffin Bay grow such big trout?

Hypersalinity, forage density and the serpulid rock structure: a combination unique on the coast. The genetics compound because the culture releases the giants.

When is trophy trout season on Baffin?

December-April, warming afternoons after fronts: slow plugs over the rocks. One bite can be the year: Baffin regulars consider that a fair trade.

Is fishing good at Baffin Bay right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Corpus Christi29 miPort Aransas48 miPort Mansfield51 miRockport59 miSouth Padre Island85 miChoke Canyon Reservoir95 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8775870 β€” Bob Hall Pier (nearest open-coast)
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 11 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 27.2800, -97.5500 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.